Today, we’re recapping our episode with Greg Portnoy, CEO & Founder of Euler, a pioneering partner portal that reduces admin tasks like onboarding, commissions and reporting and empowers partnerships teams to drive revenue and build relationships.
Listen to the Podcast as we explore Euler's founding story, GTM strategy, product roadmap and how they see the partner tech landscape evolving. See highlights from the conversation below.
Sales Pitch: The New Partnerships Operating System
Euler combines the best elements of PRMs and portals to create what is affectionately termed a "the new partnerships operating system." Unlike traditional tools that merely shift workflow, Euler is the first real tool for partnerships that empowers partner teams to achieve more with less effort. Many other GTM teams like sales, marketing & finance have tools and many options of tools that support them and help them drive outcomes and to date partnerships teams really haven't. Euler looking to change that, hear the elevator pitch:
Founder Story: Vodka vs. The Apple of Partner Tech
Co-Founder of Euler, Greg Portnoy, recognized a significant gap in the market while doing consulting work in 2022 with partnerships. Previously, Greg built 4 partnerships programs at various companies driving substantial revenue, so he understood firsthand the challenges and opportunities in this space. He felt existing partner tech fell short, either clinging to outdated models or failing to grasp the nuances of modern partnerships. This insight led Greg to embark on a journey to create a solution that not only streamlines partner operations but also enhances collaboration and removes friction points for partners.
Early feedback from industry leaders confirmed the need for a better solution, and the development of Euler began in earnest. By adopting a beginner's mindset and focusing on customer use cases, Greg & his co-founder, Dave Link, have created a platform that combines simplicity with powerful functionality. Through strategic partnerships with design partners like Rollworks, Euler has refined its product to meet the diverse needs of partnerships teams across industries and company sizes, offering a solution that exceeds expectations and redefines what partner tech can achieve.
Capital Round: The Benefits of Bootstrapping
Euler raised a small friends and family round, opting for a bootstrap model that prioritized revenue generation and profitability. This decision was driven by Euler’s founders’ deep understanding of the implications of different funding paths, having experienced both venture-backed and private equity-backed environments in previous roles. Through conversations with various stakeholders and a critical assessment of the startup landscape, Euler determined that traditional VC funding wasn't aligned with its goals. Instead, Greg & Dave chose to focus on building a sustainable business that delivers genuine value to customers. With product validation by market demand and steady revenue growth, Euler has successfully avoided the pressures of external financing and remains focused on product development and customer satisfaction.
While bootstrapping presents its own challenges, such as resource constraints and heightened scrutiny of expenses, it has enabled Euler to maintain agility and respond directly to customer needs. This deliberate approach has allowed Euler to maintain control over its trajectory and build a foundation for long-term success.
Demo Round: Simplicity & Flexibility Empowering Existing Partner Workflows
Euler’s prioritized seamless data synchronization with CRMs, boasting some of the best integrations in the PRM and portal space. Native integrations across Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive ensure that partner teams have a real-time window into their CRM data, eliminating the need for separate sources of truth. Customers can track revenue, partners, deals, and pipeline trends with ease, filtering and sorting by partner, dates, and deal stages and drill down into any partner relationship to view deal data, referrals, and tracking links. Euer’s platform streamlines partner communications with contact management, spiff incentives, and a partner portal that provides partners with real-time status updates. Plus, their Chrome extension allows for quick referral logging without leaving your browser, reducing friction for both partners and your team. Their flexible incentives module, which is a standout feature in the PRM space, allows you to customize reward models based on partner tiers, customer tiers, revenue ranges, etc.
Welcome to Euler, check out the demo yourself:
Euler's entire approach revolves around customer-product fit by providing flexibility and adaptability in its partner relationship management (PRM) platform. Unlike traditional PRM solutions, Greg noted that, “Our goal is to provide a solution that fits seamlessly into your existing workflows, offering the tools you need to succeed in partnerships without unnecessary complexity.” This approach has been well-received, as it allows partners to seamlessly integrate Euler into their existing systems without the need for extensive restructuring.
GTM Strategy: Redefining the Partnership Tech Landscape
Euler identifies its’ ideal customer profile as organizations that recognize partnerships as a strategic growth opportunity rather than an add-on to sales. By targeting customers who prioritize building effective partner programs and value transparency, Euler aims to empower partnership teams to focus on relationship-building and strategic initiatives rather than being bogged down by administrative tasks. Greg also acknowledged the importance of demonstrating the impact of partnerships to executive stakeholders, offering robust analytics and reporting tools to validate the value generated by partnership initiatives, hear more on this topic:
Competitively, Euler distinguishes itself from legacy PRM platforms by pronouncing the time of death on traditional categories and adopting a more holistic approach to partnerships. While Euler competes with other PRM solutions, it sees itself as a pioneer in redefining the partnership technology landscape. Euler is also open to collaboration with other emerging players in the partnerships space, recognizing the value of a diverse partner ecosystem. Through integrations with complementary tools and partnerships with consultants and advisors, Euler aims to provide customers with a comprehensive solution that addresses their evolving partnership needs.
Euler's growth strategy relies heavily on founder-led sales and word-of-mouth referrals, fueled by positive buzz and active engagement on platforms like LinkedIn. With a focus on inbound demand and a constant influx of new customers, Euler anticipates steady growth without the need for extensive outbound prospecting. As Euler continues to build its brand and expand its product offerings, it aims to solidify its position as the go-to solution for modern partnership management.
Product Roadmap: Next Stop Partnerships ROI
The next stage of product development for Euler revolves around addressing one of the biggest gaps in the partnerships space: ROI. Currently, most partner teams struggle to demonstrate the return on investment for their partnerships, including the value of partner managers, programs, and tools. Euler aims to change that by enabling partner teams to tell the ROI story effectively by providing robust data, analytics, and reporting, hear more about the Euler roadmap:
In addition, Euler is focused on building partnerships with complementary companies like Growth Story, Superglue, Partner Fleet, and Crossbeam, among others. These integrations aim to create a seamless experience for partners by connecting Euler with other essential tools and platforms used in the partnerships ecosystem to create the “Partner Tech Superstack” we’ve been waiting for. The goal is to remove friction points, enable better communication, and ultimately help partner teams focus on what they do best: building relationships and driving revenue. As Euler continues to add more functionality and integrations, it aims to accelerate the growth and evolution of the partnerships industry.
Kudos to the Industry
Greg recognized several companies for their innovative work in partner tech and go-to-market tools, including some previous podcast guests:
Fluincy: Uncovering partner referral revenue from everyday conversations by suggesting the right partner for the customer based on the stated problems they are trying to solve for.
Growth Story,
Superglue: Partner engagement platform that sets up automations that guide partner and sales teams through each step of the partner activation & co-selling process.
Partner Fleet: Makes it way easier to build a partner app marketplace on websites and in a product.
Fathom: Records, transcribes, highlights, and summarizes meetings with their AI Notetaker, so focus can stay on the conversation.
HubSpot: Because well, it’s a powerful CRM